Imagine your brand as the camera on your iPhone 4s. One side of the lens you have the consumer and the other, you. This is where you both interact. How you present your company, how perceptions are made and how connections merge to create the substance that is your brand.
Mostly you are judged on these 4 things;
The definition of your brand
How you communicate
How you interact and network
And lastly, the way in which you present yourself and deliver
As we touched on yesterday, you are defined not only by what you say about yourself, but what others say about you through social networks and blogs etc. You are defined by your presence online.
Before social media was around branding was a very different matter. It was defined through advertising and marketing. Hourly, weekly, Monthly, Yearly marketing campaigns would cleverly hook you into the web of the product or business and you would trust it. Nowadays, due to social media and the like, this is only one small piece of the puzzle as everyone now has a valid opinion on your brand.
You are judged on how you communicate to the rest of the world. What kind of social media do you use? Blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc.
In huge companies, it has been known that the big bosses keep a blog of ideas running, which creates discussion and improvement within the company and will most definitely lead to success. It makes the whole process a lot more ‘human’ and relative.
How you interact with people is vital to the success of your brand. One bad thing said by someone about it could mean trouble, if not worse.
Think EBay and the feedback scores. It’s a genius idea for the general public as they learn to trust in their buyers but sometimes things get nasty, even when the fault is minimum. If only people would stop to think before they slate you online huh?
The only thing you can do is make 100% sure that you have handled the problem in the correct way. Calmly and responding with 100% positivity at all times will do wonders for your brand. If you are a service or product, perhaps you could begin a twitter page just for complaints? You may think I am mad, but this shows that you are on top of your product and you are interested in its workability and listening to your customers. Ultimately instilling trust.
They way in, which you deliver your product/service, is also really important. If you buy something from EBay and it arrives in not just a 2nd hand box with a load of masking tape around it, that you battle for the next 20 minutes trying to get off…but beautifully wrapped up in brown paper, tied up with string with a hand made label on it from the seller wishing you a happy day, then you will probably have one
All these things attribute to who you are and will make it easy for the consumer to trust you. Get the picture?
Tomorrow we will be talking about making it personal…
Comments